(The following article by Leta Nolan Childers was posted on the Capital Journal website on November 9.)
PIERRE, S.D. — Traffic at the “S” curve on Sioux Avenue will never look the same once the street is changed to accommodate increased traffic by Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad. DME is applying for a $2.5 billion federal loan to rebuild and renovate its track through Minnesota and South Dakota as well as build new track to the Powder River basin in Wyoming. One plan to ease the flow of traffic through the “S” curve is to build an overpassthat will allow vehicles to drive over the tracks.
The effects of Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroads plan to send 100-car trains through Pierre 37 times a day might lead to some major transportation changes.
Thanks to legislation offered by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., DME is applying for a $2.5 billion loan from the federal government. The feds have 90 days, once the application is received, to decide.
Kevin Schieffer, executive director of the railroad, said that if the loan is approved, construction could begin as soon as next year and be completed within three years.
Mayor Dennis Eisnach said that the logical choice for mitigating the problem is grade separations—especially on the “S” curve on Sioux Avenue and the Poplar Street crossing.
A grade separation means that the grade of the road separates from its usual path–going either over the railroad crossing, the plan for the “S” curve or under the crossing such as Pierre Street.
Eisnach said that he also wants whistle-free crossings on other streets and to raise the train overpass on Pierre Street.
The grade separation solution could leave some Pierre businesses—such as Chekkers on the north side of the tracks and the strip malls on the south side of the tracks—on dead end streets because the road would have to be made impossibly steep to make the connection to the overpass.
“There’s no way that a grade can be created to allow the traffic on the sides of Wells Avenue to join the grade separation,” said Eisnach. “Cars just wouldn’t be able to make that grade.”
Eisnach said that the South Dakota Department of Transportation might be able to offer some alternatives, but, as yet, he did not know the details.
One of the other local complaints about the extra trains is the environmental impact of dust and noise. Eisnach said that the coal trains were sprayed with a solution that limited the amount of coal dust, but that there was no solution to the amount of regular dust kicked up by the trains.
Eisnach said the solution for the noise problem was using whistle-free crossings. These are the type of crossings that lower a arm down to prevent vehicles from crossing railroad tracks while a train is in the area.
The cost of these mitigating solutions is about $11 million, according to Eisnach. The city presently has about $3 million in an account at DOT for mitigation.